Because the writer isn’t a politician, preacher, or other public figure, we won’t embarrass or promote him by using his full name. His first name is Richard. Excerpts from his letter will be enhanced with our Curmudgeonly commentary and some bold font for emphasis. Here we go!

Google gave us a link to that earlier letter, but we can’t see it without subscribing to the newspaper, so we’ll proceed without it. Richard says:

You claim the universe is billions of years old and that science is way ahead of God’s antiquated Bible. Were you there, sir, when God laid down the foundations of the universe?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s a perfect rebuttal! Let’s read on:

Neither was I, but God was there.

Wait a minute! If Richard wasn’t there, then how does he know God was there? That’s not explained. Richard continues:

If we trace the lineage of Jesus Christ through God’s word, we have a convenient timeline from the beginning of creation, and tracing back from 2016 to Jesus’ time is about 2000 years, from Jesus to Noah is about 2000 years and from Noah to Adam is another 2000 years.

That’s in rough agreement with the Ussher chronology. What is Richard trying to say? Here’s more:

The Bible then states all was created in six days, which puts the Earth at just over 6000 years old, not billions of years as some would have you believe.

Whoa — if we add up those three intervals of 2,000 years, we get 6,000 years. Richard’s math is undeniable! That proves the world is 6,000 years old! Well done, Richard! Moving along:

If God is all powerful, why couldn’t he do it in six days like he said?

Yeah — why couldn’t he do it in six days? Or six hours? Or six minutes? Or in an instant? Six days seems like a long time for an all powerful deity. Another excerpt:

By the way, some atheist scientists took some microscopic pictures of a Tyrannosaurus rex bone, which was supposedly 65 million years old, but they discovered red blood cells that couldn’t possibly be that old.

Richard:“…which puts the Earth at just over 6000 years old, not billions of years as some would have you believe.“

“…as some would have you believe.” Ah, there it is again — the favorite cliché phrase of the creationist. Actually, Richard, we don’t really give a ——- if you wish to revel in your own ignorance. Just don’t try to drag others down into your private little rathole of closed-mindedness.

And truthfully, those who understand the evidence supporting a billions of years old Earth aren’t asking you to blindly believe anything. We would, however, ask that you study that evidence for yourself before dismissing it out of hand.

No, it’s the religious “authorities” who “would have you believe.” Not only that, but they would have you blindly believe, because they have zero evidence to support their claims. Scripture does not amount to evidence.

Evidently you can access one or two pages before they block non-subscribers. I googled the Mr. Simmonds’ letter Richard was replying to first which I have copied below. I then used a different browser which allowed me to find the letter that Mr. Simmonds was replying to which is also copied below also. You can probably access more pages if you delete the sunherald.com cookie after each access, but why bother?

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Here is the other side of Mr. Stuart Beardslee’s “Follow God, and all will be as it should” (May 4) letter:

The universe is at least 13 billion years old, and we know that using science and reason. The Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old. Again, we know this through science. Humans have walked the earth for about 200,000 years — yep, science. Your God, Mr. Beardslee, seems a bit tardy, showing up only 6,000 years ago.

People, it’s a book translated from some stuff written about 2,000 years ago by men who thought a wheel was high tech and that the Earth was flat. To put any credence in creationism is like thinking astrology is astronomy or that alchemy is chemistry.

When we didn’t know any better, such ideas were perhaps justified. We now have the benefit of knowledge, tools and math that didn’t exist at the time the Bible was written.

I take nothing away from the men who wrote the Bible. They did the best they could. The knowledge of the past is not equal to the knowledge of the present. Who would use a 90-year-old chemistry book to teach a class in today’s schools?

You are entitled to believe in whatever God you wish to believe in, but you aren’t entitled to state as fact things that are simply and demonstrably untrue.

SCOTT SIMMONDS
Gulfport
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

For six thousand years, God has been attempting to teach his creations how to live together in peace.

However, his people haven’t listened to the voice of God but have listened to the voice of the adversary deceiving them into thinking everything is good. We have steadfastly turned away from God’s word and have substituted our own wisdom in its place. We have allowed Satan, God’s adversary, to take us in a different direction.

Through biblical history, God has provided man the opportunity to make correct decisions that reflect his will and conform to statutes and judgements, but when we get these opportunities, we use our own flawed judgements instead.

Homosexuality and transgenderism are diseases of the mind and not real physical abnormalities.

These individuals are claiming that God, in their case, made a mistake. The only mistake is our thinking that we know better than the one who created us. In this controversy, God’s adversary is winning the argument.

Those who choose to continue to follow the word of the creator will have to remain strong and focused because they will be continually harassed by the followers of God’s adversary as they have been in the past.

Like those who knew his son, they will have to remain strong in his promises. In the end, he will establish his worldwide government and all will be as it should be.